Dubai Trains Female Squad of Lifeguards to Strengthen the Ranks of Sea Rescuers

For the first time, Dubai announced that a 100 percent female team of lifeguards has been trained to ensure the safety of its beaches, a major source of the Emirate’s tourist attractiveness.

No less than twelve women are currently trained to join one hundred professional male lifeguards currently deployed to Dubai’s beaches. Their number will keep increasing and they will be more than eighteen before the end of the year.

This announcement is part of the new measures that the Police and municipality authorities have taken in order to prevent swimming accidents. Their numbers have steadily decreased since they went from 35 drowning and related accidents in 2016 to 28 in 2017 and 9 in 2018. However, the growing number of tourists pushes every year the authorities to remain attentive and they always seek to improve the monitoring and supervision of public swimming.

Indeed, the Emirates received, in fact, nearly 7.26 million visitors in 2017, a figure that has already been overcome for the current year. Besides, half of them come for seaside tourism. In addition to drowning prevention, the city authorities have announced a whole range of measures, such as this campaign raising awareness of the risks of careless swimming, beach theft and harassment through social media and brigades on the beaches.

They also include the setup of maritime ambulances at eight strategic points along the seacoast to respond to medical emergencies very quickly.